The present invention relates to depilating devices, and more particularly, to a hand held, motorized depilating device for removing wanted skin hair, utilizing a novel mechanical design to provide improved depilating coverage, to achieve the desired depilating effect per give: skin area without requiring the user to pass the device over it numerous times, thereby increasing the hair plucking efficiency.
A problem shared by many of the depilating devices currently on the market is that the user must pass the device over the same given skin area numerous times in order to achieve the depilating effect desired, thus providing limited depilating coverage. This is commonly the result of how the hair-traps are aligned one with respect to the other and to the given skin area being depilated. Without optimal alignment of hair-traps in relation to coverage of skin area, hair plucking efficiency is decreased.
One approach for increasing the area effectively treated per depilating pass has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,287,190 to Inoue. The suggested approach is to mechanically force the hair-plucking assembly to traverse the given skin area from side to side, while simultaneously rotating about a shaft. Both types of motion are powered by means of the device""s motor.
This approach has two major drawbacks:
1. The necessity to add moving parts, which translates into increased production costs and energy consumption.
2. A substantial reduction in depilating efficiency as a result of diminishing the effective hair-trap opening exposed to the skin surface at any given time.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,281,233 to Dolev discloses a novel hair removal device, which includes disc assemblies, which are designed to alternately close and open a large number of relatively large hair-traps.
The Dolev patent discloses a depilating device comprising a hair-plucking assembly being rotatable about a shaft and including one or more disc assemblies. Each disc assembly comprises a pair of complementary discs, each of which has one or more radially extending arms, which terminate in a flattened peripheral portion. The disc assemblies also include a hub, which accommodates said pair of discs, one on each of its axial faces.
The hub has shoulders for engaging the arms of each of the discs so as to impart rotational motion to the discs upon the rotation of the hub. The hub also has pairs of protrusions, which extend axially beyond the plane of arms of each disc. The hub further has an edge, which is perpendicular to its axis.
In one embodiment, each of the arms of the pair of discs is pivotable about the edge so as to alternately bring two flattened peripheral portions into contact thus closing a hair-trap and then opening the trap to release the depilated hairs.
In an alternate embodiment, the edge of the hub includes a pinch plate, which projects radially outwardly from the edge. It is disposed in a plane opposite the plane of the flattened peripheral portion, so as to be flush with the flattened peripheral portion. Each arm of the pair of discs is pivotable about the edge so as to alternately bring two flattened peripheral portion and the pinch plate into contact thus closing two hair-traps simultaneously and then opening the traps to release the depilated hairs.
In both embodiments, however, the hair-traps are lined up one after the other, i.e. in a tandem arrangement. In a single depilating pass over a given skin area, a narrow band of skin area is treated by this tandem arrangement of hair-traps. Strips of skin, between these bands, are not treated. As a result, the device""s efficiency is reduced and consequently, the user must pass the device over the same given skin area several times in order to achieve the depilating effect desired.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a depilating device that enables improved depilating coverage ensuring achieving the depilating effect desired per given skin area without requiring the user to pass the device over the same given skin area numerous times. In addition, it would be desirable to increase the hair plucking efficiency, without increasing the energy expenditure in using the device and without increasing the number of parts involved.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages and provide a hand-held, motorized depilating device for removing unwanted skin hair, introducing a novel mechanical design to provide improved depilating coverage, ensuring achieving the depilating effect desired per given skin area without requiring the user to pass the device over the same given skin area numerous times, and thereby increasing the hair plucking efficiency.
The present invention is based on U.S. Pat. No. 5,281,233 to Dolev and is essentially an improvement of the aforementioned patent. Instead of the hair-traps being lined up one after the other, i.e. in a tandem arrangement, the novel mechanical design enables the hair-traps to be lined up in a staggered manner and consequently cover the entire given skin area.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a motor-powered depilating device comprising:
a hair-plucking assembly, coupled to motor means, and being exposed through an opening in a manually-held housing, said hair-plucking assembly being rotatable about an axis of rotation and including a plurality of disc assemblies, each disc assembly comprising:
a pair of complementary discs, each of said discs having at least two radial arms extending outwardly, each one of said complementary discs being mounted, respectively, on each of two axial faces of a hub having a predetermined thickness, said hub having at least two shoulders, each shoulder engaging one of said radial arms so as to impart rotational motion to said pair of discs upon rotation of said hub about the axis of rotation,
said hub further including engagement means, for engaging at least one adjoining hub such that rotational motion of one hub imparts rotational motion to said adjoining hub,
each of said a terminating in a flattened peripheral portion which, when pressed against a corresponding portion of a complementary disc in a pivoting motion about an edge of said hub, forms a trap for the hair, each trap lying in a predetermined one of a plurality of virtual planes, said dual planes comprising three substantially parallel planes orthogonal to the axis of rotation, including
a centerplane bisecting said hub thickness,
a first offset plane, spaced apart from said centerplane by a first offset dimension, and
a second offset plane, spaced apart from said centerplane by a second offset dimension,
said three virtual planes defining a plurality of contiguous depilating coverage zones on the skin surface within said offset dimensions,
said at least two shoulders of said hub each having a pair of protrusions which extend axially from each of said shoulders towards adjoining disc assemblies, one on either side thereof,
such that, at intervals, during the rotation of said plurality of said disc assemblies, said axial protrusions extend through open spaces between adjacent radial arms of said discs to press a radial arm of an adjoining disc assembly,
so as to alternately close and open said hair-traps in said plurality of disc assemblies, thereby plucking skin hair with improved coverage within said depilating coverage zones, and releasing it.
In the preferred embodiment, the hair-plucking assembly is rotatable about a shaft and includes at least two disc assemblies. Each disc assembly comprises a pair of complementary discs, each of which has two or more radially extending arms which terminate in a flattened peripheral portion, which when pressed against a corresponding portion forms a trap for the hair. Each trap lies in a predetermined plane, constituting one of a plurality of virtual planes.
At least one of the radially extending arms and its opposing complementary disc arm are bent, so that the hair trap formed lies in a different predetermined virtual plane offset from the other hair-traps associated with the disc assembly, thus forming a staggered arrangement of hair-traps.
The disc assemblies also include a hub which accommodates a pair of complementary discs, one on each of its axial faces. Each hub has a predetermined thickness, upon which is mounted one of the complementary discs, on each of the two axial faces of the hub. The hub has three shoulders for engaging the arms of each of the discs, sol as to impart rotational motion to the discs upon the rotation of the hub. The hub has an edge, substantially perpendicular to the axis of rotation, about which each pair of arms of the pair of discs is pivotable, so as to alternately bring, two flattened peripheral portions into contact, thus closing a hair-trap, lying in one of the predetermined planes, and then opening the trap to release the depilated hairs.
The virtual planes are three substantially parallel planes orthogonal to the axis of rotation, a centerplane bisecting the hub thickness, a first offset plane, spaced apart from the centerplane by a first offset dimension, and a second offset plane, spaced apart from the centerplane by a second offset dimension. The virtual planes define depilating coverage zones within the offset dimensions.
At least one of the hair-traps, associated with each disc assembly, and formed by the flattened peripheral portion pressed against its corresponding portion, lies in a different predetermined plane than the other hair-traps associated with the disc assembly. This staggered arrangement results in improved depilating coverage within the depilating coverage zones defined by the offset dimensions.
Each shoulder of the hub has a pair of protrusions, each member of which extends axially from the shoulder towards an adjoining disc assembly. At intervals, during the rotation of the disc assemblies, the axial protrusions extend through the open spaces between adjacent radial arms of the discs to touch the nearer disc of an adjoining disc assembly, so as to alternately close and open the hair-traps lying in each of the virtual planes, thereby plucking skin hair within the contiguous depilating coverage zones, and releasing it.
In each of the disc assemblies, the hub has extending from one of its shoulders at least one pair of axial protrusions, extending axially in opposite directions, offset from the other pairs of axial protrusions of the hub. This enables closing and opening of the staggered arrangement of hair-traps and thereby improves the depilating coverage afforded by the plurality of disc assemblies.
The hub includes engagement means, for engaging at least one adjoining hub, such that rotational motion of one hub imparts rotational motion to at least one adjoining hub.
According to another embodiment, the hub""s edge has formed thereon a pinch plate, which projects radially outwardly from the edge. The pinch plate is disposed in between and equidistant from the arms of complementary discs, so as to be substantially flush with the flattened peripheral portions of these arms.
Each pair of anus of the pair of discs is pivotable about the edge so as to alternately bring two flattened peripheral portion and the pinch plate into contact thus closing two hair-traps simultaneously and then opening the traps to release the depilated hairs. This doubles the number of hair-traps closed simultaneously and thereby, greatly increases depilating efficiency.
According to the preferred embodiment, in accordance with the principles of the present invention, the hubs are rotatably mounted on a fixed arcuate shaft and each hub includes engagement means for engaging at least one adjacent hub so that rotational motion of one hub imparts rotational motion to an adjacent hub. Trap opening and closing is accomplished by using a motion control means employing inclined pressure bearings.
According to another embodiment, the hubs are rotatably mounted on a straight shaft, and trap opening and closing is accomplished by using a motion control means employing cams or inclined thrust bearings.
Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the drawings and the description contained herein below.